{"id":3572,"date":"2013-10-23T00:00:13","date_gmt":"2013-10-23T04:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smugfilm.com\/?p=3572"},"modified":"2013-11-08T01:58:09","modified_gmt":"2013-11-08T06:58:09","slug":"bill-and-teds-excellent-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/bill-and-teds-excellent-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure: An Almost Perfect Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"billted\"
\n

\nBill and Ted\u2019s Excellent Adventure<\/a> (1989)
\n<\/b><\/span><\/b>Directed by Stephen Herek
\nWritten by Chris Matheson & Ed Solomon
\n90 min.<\/p>\n

Very mild spoilers.<\/i><\/p>\n

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure<\/a> is almost perfect.\u00a0 It\u2019s very original, the characters are cleverly constructed, there are some cool visuals, the ride is a lot of fun, and there\u2019s even a few touching moments.\u00a0 But it’s missing a certain fundamental piece of storytelling, the absence of which prevents it from being transcendent.\u00a0 Instead, it\u2019s merely a bonafide classic (which is still pretty damned good).
\n
\nBill and Ted is about friendship.\u00a0 Like Dumb and Dumber<\/a>, Planes Trains and Automobiles<\/a>, American Movie<\/a>, and Tremors<\/a>, it’s a story about two friends that embark on a crazy adventure that teaches them why they need each other.\u00a0 These kinds of stories (buddy movies) begin with two characters as best buds put in a put-upon situation.\u00a0 In Dumb and Dumber, Harry and Lloyd’s pets\u2019 heads are falling off, and that’s a pretty big problem.\u00a0 So, to fix their situation, they decide to embark on a journey.\u00a0 Said journey contains obstacles that the two heroes must face together, and by doing so, they learn why they’re friends in the first place.<\/p>\n

However, in order for that to happen, they have to be pushed apart by the journey, its obstacles driving a wedge between them.\u00a0 Remember when Lloyd pours the Ex-Lax in Harry’s tea?\u00a0 He does this because by that point in the story, they’re at odds.<\/p>\n

What keeps Bill and Ted from being truly great is that nobody ever pours any Ex-Lax.\u00a0 They always love each other.\u00a0 All of their obstacles are wholly external, and in the end, they’re right back where they started.<\/p>\n

Not only does the movie have this glaring flaw, it also has a bizarre, underdone subplot about Bill’s mom being young and hot.\u00a0 The idea never goes anywhere beyond that\u2014she’s just hot and went to high school with Bill and Ted. \u00a0It\u2019s completely unimportant and doesn\u2019t have anything to do with the story whatsoever.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a shame about these obvious blunders, because the movie is so well made in other ways.\u00a0 Bill and Ted are great characters\u2014their specific lexicon is wielded with genius ease by Winter and Reeves, who play off of each other brilliantly.\u00a0 There’s a lot of intelligence in the performances.\u00a0 So much so that they duped an entire sect of culture into thinking they were actually burn-out losers in real life.\u00a0 There’s really no greater compliment an actor can receive.<\/p>\n

My favorite moment in the entire movie is when Bill tells Billy the Kid, “Billy, you are dealing with the oddity of time travel with the greatest of ease!”\u00a0 This is one of the most layered jokes in the history of jokes.<\/p>\n

Bill\u2019s sudden adeptness at language is a surprise, but actually makes sense, since he and Ted have a very esoteric lexicon (as most friends do) and they routinely say things like “most triumphant”.\u00a0 So for Bill to throw out a word like \u2018oddity\u2019, and a sentence like this, is only surprising on the surface. The logic behind it coming out of his mouth is sound, making the surprise welcome.<\/p>\n

There’s truth in Bill\u2019s statement, but the funny thing is, Bill is somehow the purveyor of said time travel, as the de-facto chaperone through time, and since Bill and Ted are the ones snatching these historical figures up, their captives assume they are in control, and that there’s a natural hierarchy. But Bill and Ted have as little an idea of what’s going on as they do.\u00a0 Therefore, Bill is really in no position to make such a statement.\u00a0 Bill and Ted handle time travel with the greatest of ease themselves, but only because they are aloof burnouts, unable to comprehend the total insanity of their situation.<\/p>\n

Lastly, there is a beautiful, genuine sincerity to Bill’s statement.\u00a0 It’s in the line itself, but more so in the delivery, which is pitch perfect.\u00a0 Bill really does<\/i> think Billy the Kid is handling the oddity of travel with the greatest of ease, and he wants to tell him, and does so out of pure, condescension-free pride.\u00a0 He’s happy about the situation.\u00a0 It’s just a nice moment.\u00a0 And beyond that, the line itself simply makes you aware of how ridiculous the situation is, which is fun, because fun things are happening!<\/p>\n

But anyway, Bill and Ted solve their problems, Ted avoids Alaskan military school, and we are left believing that Rufus will teach them how to be most triumphant guitar players.\u00a0 But those aren’t changes<\/i>.\u00a0 Bill and Ted don’t really learn anything about each other, or themselves\u2014or really anything about history either.\u00a0 Their report is basically just historical figures talking about San Dimas.\u00a0 And if you were in the audience for that report, you’d just assume these were actors in costumes, which makes the actual presentation even more shallow.<\/p>\n

But whatever, this move is still way better than all the shit they make nowadays.\u00a0 At least they tried.\u00a0 Also, we all know how underrated and great Keanu Reeves is, but if you haven’t, check out Alex Winter’s work.\u00a0 He’s actually a great director.\u00a0 He made a cult classic called Freaked<\/a> (keep an eye out for the Reeves cameo) and on the DVD for it, you’ll find his NYU student films, which are fucking amazing.\u00a0 And he recently made a documentary about Napster<\/a>, which was most excellent.<\/p>\n

1 out of 1 stars.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"billted\"
\n

\nBill and Ted\u2019s Excellent Adventure (1989)
\n<\/b><\/span><\/b>Directed by Stephen Herek
\nWritten by Chris Matheson & Ed Solomon
\n90 min.<\/p>\n

Very mild spoilers.<\/i><\/p>\n

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure is almost perfect.\u00a0 It\u2019s very original, the characters are cleverly constructed, there are some cool visuals, the ride is a lot of fun, and there\u2019s even a few touching moments.\u00a0 But it’s missing a certain fundamental piece of storytelling, the absence of which prevents it from being transcendent.\u00a0 Instead, it\u2019s merely a bonafide classic (which is still pretty damned good).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,15],"tags":[3114,843,3108,3112,3107,3110,3115,1339,3111,3116,3117,37,3113,104,185,3109,579],"class_list":["post-3572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allposts","category-gregsreviews","tag-alex-winter","tag-american-movie","tag-bill-and-ted","tag-bill-and-ted-review","tag-bill-and-teds-excellent-adventure","tag-chris-matheson","tag-documentary-about-napster","tag-dumb-and-dumber","tag-ed-solomon","tag-freaked","tag-freaked-movie","tag-greg-deliso","tag-planes-trains-and-automobiles","tag-smug-film-2","tag-smugfilm","tag-stephen-herek","tag-tremors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3572"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3581,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3572\/revisions\/3581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}